Fire Gardy

And … speaking of the MLB Network and the possiblity of better non-Boston/NY coverage of baseball, tonight they’re airing their first original film, We Are Young: A Baseball Family. It’s about the brothers Young, Dmitri and Delmon, and it comes on at 8 PM. I’ll be watching it, and I’ll try to post something about it tomorrow.

I’m really hoping this thing is well made, I always look forward to a glimpse into the lives of Twins players, especially the ones I like like Delmon.

Hopefully it’s not quite as depressing as it sounds:

. . . We Are Young: A Baseball Family, the first-ever original film by MLB Productions, chronicles a seven-year period of MLB players and brothers Dmitri and Delmon Young, and their demanding father, Larry, who helped guide them into the Major Leagues. The film documents Dmitri, currently on the Washington Nationals, who makes the All-Star team in 2003, watches with joy as his brother is selected as the number one pick in the Draft that same year, but then begins to battle alcoholism and is released by the Detroit Tigers in 2005. Soon after, Dmitri comes close to death due to an undiagnosed case of diabetes, and then bounces back to make the All-Star team in 2007 and become the National League’s 2007 Comeback Player of the Year. We Are Young: A Baseball Family also chronicles the controversy that has surrounded Delmon-the first overall pick in the 2003 Major League Baseball Draft-ever since his 50-game suspension for flipping a bat in at an umpire during a Minor League game. Delmon would learn a valuable lesson, and eventually is called up to the Major Leagues in the fall of 2005, where he would make an immediate impact with Tampa. After finishing second in the American League Rookie of the Year honors the next season, Delmon was traded to the Twins.

And just as an off-the-cuff remark: you often hear about the demanding fathers who mold their children into professional-caliber athletes (or even the best in their sport) like Tiger Woods, Venus/Serena Williams, and Dmitri/Delmon Young. And I’m sure it’s a lot more common than that among professional athletes.

But you never hear about the demanding fathers who pushed their children hard to become great and it didn’t work out. That’s really the kind of thing that can ruin lives and tear families apart.

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